MAYBE NOT THE SMARTEST! BUT IT WAS FUN!

[nh.nugget]

After dealing with Winters escapades one of my mining buddies call me says hey we've had a week of 50s 60s temps lets go north! OK! Off we go on the way up seeing other rivers along the way didn't look good. Finally we get there first place not happening! High water, big ice didn't want to die. We were just out for the day no dogs, no wives. no cell phone! So stopped at another spot we wanted to check out- nope! Off to another place on our list feeling a little discouraged we were thinking of coming home. We get there OH HAPPY DAY'S !!!!! We were able to get to the water still big ice, fast water but on the edge of the bank was a table top size patch gleaming in the sun THAWED!!! So sample on started panning getting some color not bad. The color got better! We were panning and filling buckets. Me and one of the others even got a small picker test panning plus some fines. Also watching and hearing the chunks of ice coming down the river was cool too! Here's some pics. the last two pics are of now and last summer.

 

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[Laz7777]

nice picker.
what is the purity of the gold in NH? ever have it tested?

I've mined in winter, lived 5 miles from the road down the south yuba trail...it definitely was not the smartest thing.
got one toe frostbit...BTW, it hurts. and keeps hurting even after the purple/black spot is gone.

never got the ice floes you do on the south fork. just ice along the edge of the river, kick through it and set the box.
noticed one thing though: even with dish sap it was damn hard to keep the flour from floating in that cold water.

 

[nh.nugget]

nice picker.
what is the purity of the gold in NH? ever have it tested?

I've mined in winter, lived 5 miles from the road down the south yuba trail...it definitely was not the smartest thing.
got one toe frostbit...BTW, it hurts. and keeps hurting even after the purple/black spot is gone.
Our gold is supposed to be 22k. Luckily it was 65 degrees this day. those ice chunks were the small ones. There was a tree that came downstream 30' long 12-14'' wide with a stump attached. The ice right on the bank was a couple of feet thick plus 3' of water under it